1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to advertising over a wide area network such as the Internet, and more particularly, to a system and method that allows an Internet user to place an advertisement within a digital message and to receive compensation for doing so.
2. Description of Related Art
The number of Internet users has been growing at an ever increasing rate over the past ten years. InternetWorldStats.com estimates that in 2007, the number of individuals worldwide who have access to the Internet is 1.1 billion, with 211 million of those individuals residing in the United States. Businesses are aware of this growing audience and have responded, spending $12.1 billion on Internet advertising in 2005. This number is expected to double by 2010.
The rapid increase in the number of individuals who have Internet access has lead to, and may in part be attributed to, an increase in e-mail usage. In the United States, approximately 65% of Internet users are over the age of 14 and have active e-mail accounts. Studies have shown that 90% of those e-mail users connect to the Internet primarily to view and send e-mail. Additionally, 40% of those individuals stated that checking their e-mail was one of the first things they do in the morning, as well as one of the last things they do before going to bed. As these numbers suggest, the e-mail users, which worldwide are responsible for generating 10 billion e-mail messages daily, are spending a great deal of time interacting with a medium that is relatively untapped by the advertising industry.
In increasing numbers, Internet users are also turning to web logs, or “blogs,” to seek out special-interest information. One study estimates that there are more than 70 million active blogs available on the Internet, featuring news and commentary on a wide range of topics. Most of these blogs also allow readers to post messages in reply to the hosted commentary. Other Web sites host digital bulletin boards or chat rooms in which users post digital messages discussing topics of mutual interest. These digital messages are not limited to text; indeed, millions of users post audio, still images, and video on Web sites featuring user-generated content in order to interact with an online community of users with similar interests. These online communities with focused interests are an appealing target for advertisers, who have begun to recognize the potential of this medium.
With the amount of funds being spent on Internet marketing, it is imperative that those advertising campaigns produce profitable results. This requires advertising service providers to offer focused, result-driven, advertising methods. A basic premise to begin with is that Internet advertisements must produce a positive association in the consumers' mind with the advertised product. A negative association, which can be produced by advertising through unsolicited e-mail, not only does not benefit the organization, but may actually harm it in the long run. For example, if a business buys a list of e-mail addresses from an industry that has a similar customer base, the response they get from the recipient may have quite the opposite effect of that intended. Unsolicited e-mail messages, also referred to as spam or junk e-mail, may annoy the consumer so much that a negative connotation with the product is formed in the consumer's mind, thus reducing sales in off-line markets through poor brand name association.
One way to avoid the negative association created through unsolicited e-mail advertisements is to advertise through solicited e-mails. That is, attach advertisements to standard e-mail messages (or other solicited communications) that are being sent between individuals that have a personal or professional relationship. Advertising in this manner is much less intrusive and appears to the recipient as a platform for the message, instead of the message itself. There are currently at least three different business models that utilize solicited e-mail for advertising. The first is the desired account method used by Hotmail™, which provides an Internet user with an e-mail address in exchange for placing a Hotmail™ (or affiliate) interactive link within every e-mail message that originates from the account. The second is the banner advertisement model, used, for example, by Yahoo™ mail and AIM™ mail, which displays advertisements on screen adjacent to message reading and composing panes so that users view advertisements while composing digital messages and while reading digital messages. This third is the advertisement attachment model, used at various times by Yahoo™ mail and Hotmail™, which attaches an advertisement or advertising link referring to another of that company's Web sites or services to the bottom of outbound digital messages.
The desired account method allows a service such as Hotmail™ to advertise itself to recipients of e-mail messages in exchange for providing and maintaining an e-mail address. The reason this is referred to as the desired account method is due to the popularity of the Hotmail™ name. Internet users prefer to have a Hotmail™ account over other similar accounts (e.g., Mail.com), which are also free, because of the name recognition associated with it.
There are three problems with an advertising service's using the desired account method. First, there is a great deal of setup cost associated with a Web site capable of receiving, storing, and transmitting high quantities of data, as required by an e-mail service provider. Second, the advertiser would need brand name recognition capable of enticing Internet users to become e-mail subscribers, which may prove to be quite hard if the advertiser is not as well known (and attractively viewed) as Hotmail™. Third, an Internet user that already has an e-mail account would be less inclined to sign up for a second one, which would force the Internet user to monitor and maintain multiple e-mail accounts.
Other mail services provide an Internet user with an e-mail account in exchange for placing interactive advertisement links within every e-mail message that originates from the account. Additionally, users may agree to view banner advertisements that pop up while the user is composing or reading digital messages using the network server. The Internet user may also be rewarded by receiving free services or through a point system if the advertisement is deemed successful. The points can later be redeemed through the Web site for merchandise or money. By compensating Internet users for using such a service, businesses that don't have the brand name recognition can pay to have their advertisements included in solicited e-mails.
There are four problems with advertisers using the methods described above. First, Internet users that already have an e-mail account would be less inclined to sign up for a second one, which would force the Internet user to monitor and maintain multiple e-mail accounts. Second, in the absence of any subscription questionnaire (which would provide only minimal information anyway), the advertiser would have no idea what demographic is going to be exposed to the advertisement or whether the recipient of the e-mail will be a consumer that would be inclined to purchase the advertising product. For example, advertisements for dating services could be sent to married couples, which provides the advertiser with little benefit. This leads to the third problem, given that the advertisements are placed at random, the recipient may be offended by the advertisement, thus creating a negative association with the product. Not only does this reflect poorly on the advertiser, but it also reflects poorly on the sender of the e-mail, possibly discouraging future use of such a service. For example, advertisements for McDonalds corporation could be viewed as offensive if they are sent to a Hindu. Fourth, when the advertisers realize the problems associated with such a system, they will only pay the Internet users for advertisements that prove to be successful (e.g., the recipient interacts with the advertisement or makes a purchase). However, this is rather unfair to the Internet user when you consider that 40% of people who purchase a product after they view an online advertisement do so between eight and thirty days after seeing the advertisement.
Another method of Internet advertising that may avoid the negative associations created by unsolicited e-mails is targeting advertising to the special interests of the users of a particular blog, online social network, or online bulletin board. For example, Edmunds™ and Kelley Bluebook™ host a number of online bulletin boards allowing users to post messages discussing automobiles. Advertisements for auto parts, automobile magazines, and automotive accessories placed on these sites likely find a receptive audience among the users of these bulletin boards, reducing the risk that an advertiser would alienate or offend potential customers. However, selecting an advertisement based on the general topic of the blog or bulletin board may still result in advertisements that are of little interest to a large number of users. Accordingly, it would be desirable to tailor advertising more narrowly to individual users or small groups of users to increase the probability that they will interact with the advertisement and ultimately purchase advertised products.
From the above discussion, it is clear that an Internet advertisement service provider should appeal to the user of the online content, the provider of the online content, and the advertiser in order to be effective in the marketplace. In order to appeal to an e-mail recipient, an e-mail message containing an advertisement should be solicited. Thus, it would be preferable if the e-mail message came from someone the recipient knew, either personally or professionally, and the content of the e-mail message was not primarily related to the advertisement. Likewise, to appeal to a blog reader, online social network user, or bulletin-board user, an advertisement should appeal to that user's particular background and interests.
In order for an Internet advertisement service provider to appeal to a contributor of online content, the contributor should be adequately compensated for his trouble. This would include compensating the contributor for the mere presence of an advertisement in a digital communication (whether that communication be e-mail, chat-room dialog, instant messaging, blog postings, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, online social network messages, etc.). This compensation would be increased if the advertisement was interacted with and/or purchases were made. Additionally, an e-mail service should work in conjunction with a sender's existing e-mail address, thus enabling the sender to only have to monitor and maintain one e-mail account. Finally, the content contributor should be able to choose which advertisements (or advertising entities) are to be included in his digital message. For example, this would allow a person with an interest in sports to attach a Nike™ advertisement to his message, thus portraying himself as an athletically minded individual, much like one does when one wears a t-shirt containing the Nike™ logo.
Finally, an Internet advertisement service provider would appeal to an advertiser the end product produced advertisements that were placed before interested consumers. By presenting the contributor of a digital message with a palette of relevant advertisements and giving the contributor the ability to choose which advertisements should be incorporated within his digital messages, the advertisement gets displayed before the contributor, who is most likely a consumer of the advertised product, and before a user of that digital message, who, by association, is more likely than not to also share the same interests as the contributor. Additionally, the advertising service should be capable of distributing e-mails and advertisements to recipients operating on non-traditional Internet devices (e.g., mobile phones or other wireless devices). The service should also be flexible enough to adapt to changes within the on-line advertising industry.
Thus, a need exists for a system that incorporates computer-assisted user control over the selection of advertisements to be associated with digital messages, that compensates contributors for their careful selection of a relevant advertisement, and that makes digital messages containing advertisements available to consumers using a variety of network devices to access digital content.